{"id":18823,"date":"2021-01-23T06:19:03","date_gmt":"2021-01-23T06:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theoklahomaeagle.net\/?p=18823"},"modified":"2021-01-23T06:19:03","modified_gmt":"2021-01-23T06:19:03","slug":"should-senator-james-lankford-resign-from-the-1921-race-massacre-commission-or-is-this-a-teachable-moment-for-both-the-senator-and-the-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/2021\/01\/23\/should-senator-james-lankford-resign-from-the-1921-race-massacre-commission-or-is-this-a-teachable-moment-for-both-the-senator-and-the-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Senator James Lankford Resign From The 1921 Race Massacre Commission?  Or Is This A Teachable Moment For Both The Senator And The Commission?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By James O. Goodwin<br \/>\nPublisher, The Oklahoma Eagle<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"flex-video widescreen youtube\" data-plyr-embed-id=\"Lezj-fjf-hA\" data-plyr-provider=\"youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Senator Lankford Speaks on the Tulsa Race Riot on the Senate Floor\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Lezj-fjf-hA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nOn Jan 14, 2021, Senator Lankford, in a1009-word open letter addressed \u201cTo My Friends in North Tulsa,\u201d said Tulsa is set to recognize \u201cthe 100th anniversary of the worst race massacre in our nation\u2019s history.\u201d<br \/>\nHe is a member of the 1921 Race Massacre Commission which is planning activities for commemoration of the massacre. At the same time, he is in lockstep with a group of U.S. Senators and U.S. Congress people, who were hell bent on delaying the U.S. Senate certification of the electors from all fifty states who were unanimous in following the popular vote favoring President Joe Biden, Jr., and Vice President Kamala Harris.<br \/>\nWhile knowing all along Congress could not legally ignore any state\u2019s electors or change any state\u2019s vote, he claims he was not trying to disenfranchise black voters \u201cbut to resolve any outstanding questions (regarding voter fraud) before the inauguration on January 20\u201d\u2026 in order to strengthen the confidence of all Americans \u2026 in their electoral system \u2026 and knows their vote matters.&#8221; His act was an act of futility. He put politics over principle.<br \/>\nBy his own admission, he knew that his act to form an electoral commission was an exercise only to curry favor with his voters, and no senatorial inquiry would change the election results.<br \/>\nFrom our point of view, his act served as a guise to cast aspersions on the validity of the Black voters, not unlike the presidential compromise which followed the formation of America\u2019s only federal electoral commission in 1877. \u00a0Former President Trump\u2019s allegation of voter fraud concentrated on heavy voting districts of Black, Indian, and Latino.<br \/>\nIn 1877, by an informal agreement, the presidential election dispute was resolved between southern Democrats and allies of Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, by ending the era of reconstruction, and beginning the era of American apartheid, called Jim Crow. Among other horrendous things, Black folks were disenfranchised.<br \/>\nIn the 2020 presidential election, both the popular and electoral college votes were overwhelmingly in favor of President, Joe Biden, and Vice President, Kamala Harris.\u00a0 No federal electoral commission was needed.<br \/>\nOn January 6, 2021, when the armed white racist mob invaded the U.S. Congress, waiving a Confederate flag and beating a police officer with an American flagpole, and yelling for the death of U.S. House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and Vice-President Mike Pense, it jolted Senator Lankford.\u00a0 He reversed his position on the federal commission inquiry and dropped his demand for a commission.\u00a0 Fortunately, he chose principle over politics.\u00a0 His next test is whether he will vote to impeach Donald Trump.<br \/>\nSenator Lankford must change his perceptions about Black people.\u00a0 The dynamics of that needed transformation may occur through his continued work on the 1921 Race Massacre Commission.\u00a0 In one of his speeches before the U.S. Senate, he suggested that Black people and Whites should visit the homes of each other and break bread together to better understand each other.\u00a0 To others, that is as ineffective as Nancy Reagan\u2019s cure for drug use \u201cBy just say(ing) No.\u201d\u00a0 We agree with Senator Lankford, we cannot legislate love, but we can certainly legislate laws requiring harsh penalties when people commit acts of disrespect and hate.<br \/>\nAnother insight into Senator Lankford\u2019s mindset about race is his misuse grammatically of the words \u201cNorth Tulsa.\u201d\u00a0 To begin the salutation in his open letter with \u201cTo my friends in North Tulsa,\u201d we make this observation:\u00a0 His capitalization of the word \u201cNorth\u201d in front of the word Tulsa grammatically reveals his frame of mind.\u00a0 Basic grammar teaches us that capital letters are used only at the beginning of a sentence or for the identification of proper names.\u00a0 Geographically, there is no such place as \u201cNorth Tulsa.\u201d\u00a0 To describe it as such, grammatically suggests it is not a part of the City of Tulsa and is a separate geographic unit, \u00a0unless of course one thinks of it as a separate place.\u00a0 If he desires unity among people of Tulsa, he should refer to people as Tulsans. The term \u201cNorth Tulsa\u201d brands people with negative presumptions, biases, and prejudices.\u00a0 Of course, there are some other people, who do regard Tulsa north as \u201cNorth Tulsa,\u201d separate and apart. Over past decades, Tulsa north has been treated with benign neglect.<br \/>\nLastly, we all recognize that Senator Lankford does not need the Black vote to remain a U.S. Senator from Oklahoma.\u00a0 We also recognize that in a \u201cred state\u201d such as Oklahoma, for him to vote to impeach Donald Trump may be political suicide.\u00a0 Is he a profile in that kind of courage?<br \/>\nAs to the rest of the members of the 1921 Race Massacre Commission, Senator Lankford, as cumbersome as his attempts have been, is a person with a genuine interest in experiencing our shared humanity.\u00a0 But we, too, must remember we also are flawed.\u00a0 Senator Langford has much to learn about the Black experience, and the Commission should be eager to engage him.\u00a0 For Senator Lankford to be immersed in the Black experience is a sure way to expose the malady of white privilege.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By James O. Goodwin Publisher, The Oklahoma Eagle &nbsp; &nbsp; On Jan 14, 2021, Senator Lankford, in a1009-word open letter addressed \u201cTo My Friends in North Tulsa,\u201d said Tulsa is set to recognize \u201cthe 100th anniversary of the worst race massacre in our nation\u2019s history.\u201d He is a member of the 1921 Race Massacre Commission&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107,103],"tags":[],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-18823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18823"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.willoughbyavenue.com\/eagle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=18823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}